Traveling with two different people on four different flights in the last month, and received pre-check on all of them including the one booked five hours before departure. None of us have status beyond basic FF numbers on either United or Southwest.
Glad to have it, though even with pre-check we had a yeller/screamer TSA agent at Newark who was positively, hands-down, the worst representative for the TSA I’ve ever seen. I’m just thankful she wasn’t doing her, “I’m the BOSS” routine with me, though I did feel quite sorry for the two people who were getting it. They had the temerity to ask why they were being asked to take off their shoes in the pre-check line, and that caused Mt. Vesuvius to erupt.
By the way, if you have pre-check or global entry and a known traveler #, be sure the # is properly entered on all your reservations, especially if you use any travel agents. There was an article in the paper this morning about many not getting pre-check because digits not properly entered or name on reservation and TSA registry aren’t identical!
@bluebayou - follow up:
I did get TSA precheck yesterday (both DH and I got it) and later in the day I got the email that my sky miles accounts have been merged (I had to call both Delta and AmEx).
AmEx is insisting they have to send me a new credit card with my old sky miles number on it (the card they just sent me has the new number on it). Don’t have a clue why that matters as the sky miles # is in tiny print, ad as I understand it, if anyone were to type my “new” sky miles # into anything, it converts it to the old # I’ve had for decades, and the # number is now gone from their system. So, other than my convenience at not having to remember my sky miles #, or possibly some Delta agent looking at it somewhere, sometime, what difference does it make if it’s on the card or not? Oh well, I’ll be getting a new credit card in the mail sometime in the next week or so (I asked them not to expedite it as I was still traveling and didn’t want it to get here before I did As it is, the USPO didn’t restart my mail when they were supposed to… But I digress).
I just saw this reported in today’s WSJ. It’s a FREE mobile app that will enable you to expedite clearing US immigration/customs when you reenter the US from overseas. It’s kind of a “Global Entry lite” without the TSA PreCheck privileges. It’s said to be almost as fast as entry using Global Entry.
Both DH and I got random pre-check to and from Las Vegas last month from DFW. I read in the paper the morning of our departure that TSA was no longer assigning random pre-check but our boarding passes came spitting out of he machine with the pre-check on them. However there was no pre-check line open. According to the TSA person cntrolling the flow there were no pre-check lanes open anywhere in terminal C. At 9am on a Friday.
Got the random p re-check to and from Portland again earlier this month. I think what they really mean is that they don’t pull folks out f the regular lines any more We got snarled at for using the regular line with pre-check on our boarding pass in California a few months ago. There wasn’t a single other passenger in sight. The guy obviously has control issues.
I had the tv on yesterday and heard the post-meeting press conference with PM Trudeau and the president of Mexico and our president. The president of Mexico mentioned that as a result of the meeting, he planned to begin having Mexico accept U.S.'s Global Entry, instead of having the separate one for Mexico.
It was nice returning from Iceland back to Portland yesterday with TSA. We went to a machine and swiped our
fingerprints and moved on. As we still had to wait for baggage it did not save a lot of time just eliminated a long line.
Got ours about two years ago. H got an appointment quickly and mine was months later so I went with H and the guy
took me then. Worth every cent.
Yes, people who do (have done) a lot of keyboarding/typing tend to have a difficult time with fingerprints. H and my sister both have this issue due to decades of keyboarding. Fortunately, that is not among my issues.
The fingerprints imaging gives a rating and mine only reached good while H’s was excellent.
I think for myself it is about cooking (and burns).
They still let me back in ;
Point of note - I just renewed my global entry, and didn’t require an interview. It was approved in less than a week, though I had to check the GOES website - they didn’t send an email.
“I’ve not heard that TSA works overseas or uses a fingerprint.”
The TSA is an American agency, so by definition it has nothing to do with how other countries screen their passengers. That’s why it doesn’t work overseas.
